All That Is In The World-Part 1

Fill in the blank: For God so loved the ________. I am sure you probably said "world" referring to the most famous verse of the Bible, which is John 3:16. Christians know that God so loved this world that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ.

Yet, when you go further in the rest of the New Testament, you see this verse:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

It seems a little oxymoronic that God would love the world yet we cannot. When it comes to the word, "world," we need to what the writers of Scripture are meaning. First, this verse does not mean we are not to love the created world. God has created this world and there are many beautiful things to enjoy in it. Second, this is not a cause to retreat from the world and hide in your doomsday bunker. Jesus, while praying to His Father, said:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world (John 17:14-16).

Those who follow Christ are not of this world nor should they be removed so they can proclaim the gospel to everyone around them.

When the Bible refers to "the world," it is referring to the systems and values that are against God. John writes that those who love the world, which is against God, has no love for the Father. James 4:4 says those who love the world hate God.

In verse 16 of 1 John 2, we see three things that describe those who love the world:

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes and the pride of life. All three of these things are from the world. We are going to focus on each of these in a little greater detail.

First, we will deal with the desires of the flesh. The flesh means the nature that is still prone to sin. When come to faith in Christ, He does make us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and we have forgiven of our sins (1 John 1:9). Yet, we still wrestle with the flesh. The Apostle Paul made his struggle with the flesh very apparent in Romans 7. Paul also mentions what the desires of the flesh are:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do..Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:17, 19-20).

All of these things that Paul listed are what the desires of the flesh want. The flesh wants us to turn from God and embrace ourselves. The world will do whatever it can to entice the flesh. There are movies, songs, and some TV shows. There are even websites to entice the flesh. Now, you might be thinking I am just referring to sexual immorality which is what people think when we discuss the desires of the flesh. While sexual immorality is part of those desires, there is also jealousy, envy, and unrighteous anger.

The Bible does tell us what to do with these desires:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry...you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (Colossians 3:5, 8-10).

We are kill what is earthly in us. As John Owen once said, "Be killing sin, or sin be killing you." We have are a new creation in Christ. We are to put off our old self as well as set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-4). As we live in the world, we are to live in it for the glory of God while setting our minds above.